Thoughts from the Middle of Nowhere

I always love when i read articles that tell me how to do things in the ranch business that I have all ready figured out. This one is telling me that I might want to consider grass/alfalfa mixture for hay ground instead of straight alfalfa.

It's kind of funny to me because i figured that out a few years ago. My father for years only grew straight alfalfa but I have been trying planting some grass with it and getting very good results. I now have as much hayground in mixtures as I do in straight alfalfa. I don't think I will convert any of the straight fields that are left to a mixture so i can keep some real good alfalfa stands but it sure appears to be working great.

One other thing I have noted as a benefit of doing this is that if you plant an aggressive spring type grass, it also outgrows a lot of the weeds and keeps them suppressed for you. The disadvantage of having a hard time selling the hay doesn't apply to me. Unless I was willing to spend a lot of money improving the roads, I can't get trucks into my hayfields to sell hay so I never do. So, not a problem. Live and learn you know. It's funny when i learn things ahead of the "experts" though.

An expert is a man who has made all the mistakes which can be made in a very narrow field. Niels Bohr

A cow grazing out in a field of hay that i let go to seed this year. I see more and more cows out in the field all the time now that other grass is running out. I'm hoping by letting it go to seed it will thicken up some. It is pretty skimpy in spots. Taken 11/4/2007.

The grass was so tall here that it almost looked like these were calves grazing, but that would be a wrong answer. These are cows with grass up to and over their backs. Taken 10/8/2007.

Some fine grazing here. The funny thing is they are just moving through this pasture on the way home for shipping. I think I will put the cows back out here after shipping to graze this off. It's nice to have lots of grass for a change. Taken 9/12/2007.

It's amazing what difference a year makes. Last year was fairly dry but I felt there was a decent amount of grass. The cows were really restless though. I would put them in a pasture and they would walk from one end to another and back again. They never seemed to settle down. Last year I was hoping the calves would weigh good but they didn't. Fifty pounds lighter than they have been and they looked it to. The cows weren't in good shape and I believe that led to some extra dries this spring. It was a tough year last year.

This year now is completely different. The cows are content no matter where they are. they don't walk the fences looking for better grass. They are happy. I've kept them in their pastures longer than normal and they still aren't looking for new grass, just content with what they have. Damn is it nice to see. The calves are growing like mad and are going to weigh up good again this year. They look great. Hopefully they bred up better than the heifers and i won't have many drys. it would be nice.

These observations really came to my mind when I got to thinking that I hadn't seen a prairie dog all year. Last year these prairie lice seemed to be wanting to make a major move onto the place. You would be driving along a road and here would be a prairie dog running down the road or you would spot a new hole out in a place I had never seen one before. I took to carrying a gun and shooting them whenever I saw them. I don't want the prairie lice starting here. I must have killed 15 or 20 of them through the summer trying to move in on me.

I never could figure out why I was seeing so many. A lot of these places were over 10 miles from the nearest town so I couldn't figure out why they were moving in so hard. Thinking about it now that I haven't seen any this year leads me to believe it was the same thing as the cows. The grass was of very poor nutritional value last year and the prairie lice, like the cows, were moving around looking for a better quality feed. This year with the good feed there is no pressure for the lice to move so they are staying home and I don't see any.

I'm sure glad it is a different year. It's nice to see the cows happy. The only problem is all the grass makes a larger fire danger so i worry more about that but a little rain would change that equation. None in the forecast yet but I'm hoping. We are going into September and a little rain by mid month is not unusual so I am hoping to see it. There is an old saying the Montana is "next year country." You live in hope next year will be better. I can see that. As good as this year has been, I hope next year is better.

Accuracy of observation is the equivalent of accuracy of thinking. Wallace Stevens